EEPROM

EEPROM (also written E2PROM and pronounced “e-e-prom”, “double-e prom”, “e-squared”, or simply “e-prom”) stands for ElectricallyErasable Programmable Read-Only Memory and is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices to store small amounts of data that must be saved when power is removed, e.g., calibration tables or device configuration.

Unlike bytes in most other kinds of non-volatile memory, individual bytes in a traditional EEPROM can be independently read, erased, and re-written.

An EPROM usually must be removed from the device for erasing and programming, whereas EEPROMs can be programmed and erased in-circuit, by applying special programming signals. Originally, EEPROMs were limited to single byte operations which made them slower, but modern EEPROMs allow multi-byte page operations. It also has a limited life – that is, the number of times it could be reprogrammed was limited to tens or hundreds of thousands of times. That limitation has been extended to a million write operations in modern EEPROMs. In an EEPROM that is frequently reprogrammed while the computer is in use, the life of the EEPROM can be an important design consideration. It is for this reason that EEPROMs were used for configuration information, rather than random access memory.